Anna Karenina eBook

“Alexey Alexandrovitch, believe me, she appreciates
your generosity,” he said. “But
it seems it was the will of God,” he added,
and as he said it felt how foolish a remark it was,
and with difficulty repressed a smile at his own foolishness.

Alexey Alexandrovitch would have made some reply,
but tears stopped him.

“This is an unhappy fatality, and one must accept
it as such. I accept the calamity as an accomplished
fact, and am doing my best to help both her and you,”
said Stepan Arkadyevitch.

When he went out of his brother-in-law’s room
he was touched, but that did not prevent him from
being glad he had successfully brought the matter
to a conclusion, for he felt certain Alexey Alexandrovitch
would not go back on his words. To this satisfaction
was added the fact that an idea had just struck him
for a riddle turning on his successful achievement,
that when the affair was over he would ask his wife
and most intimate friends. He put this riddle
into two or three different ways. “But
I’ll work it out better than that,” he
said to himself with a smile.

Chapter 23

Vronsky’s wound had been a dangerous one, though
it did not touch the heart, and for several days he
had lain between life and death. The first time
he was able to speak, Varya, his brother’s wife,
was alone in the room.

Without answering his words, Varya bent over him,
and with a delighted smile gazed into his face.
His eyes were clear, not feverish; but their expression
was stern.

“Thank God!” she said. “You’re
not in pain?”

“A little here.” He pointed to his
breast.

“Then let me change your bandages.”

In silence, stiffening his broad jaws, he looked at
her while she bandaged him up. When she had
finished he said:

“I’m not delirious. Please manage
that there may be no talk of my having shot myself
on purpose.”

“No one does say so. Only I hope you won’t
shoot yourself by accident any more,” she said,
with a questioning smile.

“Of course I won’t, but it would have
been better...”

And he smiled gloomily.

In spite of these words and this smile, which so frightened
Varya, when the inflammation was over and he began
to recover, he felt that he was completely free from
one part of his misery. By his action he had,
as it were, washed away the shame and humiliation
he had felt before. He could now think calmly
of Alexey Alexandrovitch. He recognized all
his magnanimity, but he did not now feel himself humiliated
by it. Besides, he got back again into the beaten
track of his life. He saw the possibility of